Her work is published in Glimmer Train, Under Water New York, and elsewhere. Her writing has earned her three-time acceptance to the Tin House Writer's Workshop. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College and an MSc in fiction and poetry from The University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Ella uses the stories of her Chinese-Nicaraguan family, her English heritage, and her own experience growing up as a mixed-race, first-generation American to find inspiration. To fuel her work, she also conducts extensive research, records family interviews, and catalogs family photographs, ephemera, and notebooks.

By day, Ella is a director of content strategy at a technology company. She supports teams who use language, information, and storytelling to design stronger products.